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YouTubeFor anyone who might be interested, TED is featuring a theme called "The Power of Cities" featuring a few interesting talks.
Columbus Underground Messageboard » General Columbus Discussion
TED on the "Power of Cities"
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gramarye
In Exile
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Kunstler was on a roll until he made a dumb Iraq reference; I clicked my back button and didn't listen to the rest of his speech.
I've seen that video of Majora Carter before, however ... that one's worth watching. Haven't seen any of these others yet ... but hey, I've got the day off ...
Posted 4 years ago # -
cab124
Downtown Columbus
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gramarye wrote Kunstler was on a roll until he made a dumb Iraq reference; I clicked my back button and didn't listen to the rest of his speech.
Yea, I felt a little uneasy about his assertion that a country full of places not worth caring about can easily be considered a country not worth defending. That seems like quite a leap to me, and may just be his way of pulling his own political ideology into the discussion.
Other than that, however, I really appreciate his eloquent way of describing the value of the public realm, and how we have completely abandoned the principles of good design since the second world war.
My favorite slide from his presentation was the one which shows a few modest buildings along a single city block that represent good design with the caption that was something like, "Why is this so difficult?" As I thought about that slide, I couldn't help but to think of the renderings of concepts for the land now occupied by City Center in the last issue of Columbus Monthly. Why do we have to conceive of such grandiose, super-sculpture buildings? Why not just go back to the basics and build what works - a standard city street grid, maybe with a public plaza, lined with buildings that define the public space. We don't really have much of that in Downtown Columbus. You can actually find far more of it in smaller cities, such as Delaware.
Posted 4 years ago # -
Brewmaster
Portland, OR
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Does anybody think Kunstler should be hired as a consultant when City Center is redesigned? If he could refrian from calling people morons and dropping f-bombs in the presence of the mayor, I think he'd be an asset to the project.
Posted 4 years ago # -
cab124
Downtown Columbus
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Brewmaster wrote Does anybody think Kunstler should be hired as a consultant when City Center is redesigned? If he could refrian from calling people morons and dropping f-bombs in the presence of the mayor, I think he'd be an asset to the project.
I would love to hear his thoughts on the new county courthouse. I may actually email him a link to a photo and see if I can't get him to respond with a little analysis.
Posted 4 years ago # -
drew
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cab124 wrote My favorite slide from his presentation was the one which shows a few modest buildings along a single city block that represent good design with the caption that was something like, "Why is this so difficult?" As I thought about that slide, I couldn't help but to think of the renderings of concepts for the land now occupied by City Center in the last issue of Columbus Monthly. Why do we have to conceive of such grandiose, super-sculpture buildings? Why not just go back to the basics and build what works - a standard city street grid, maybe with a public plaza, lined with buildings that define the public space. We don't really have much of that in Downtown Columbus. You can actually find far more of it in smaller cities, such as Delaware.
I agree very strongly. Iconic architecture is the icing, not the cake. It's expensive to build and maintain, and can be disruptive to the coherence of the city. Often the architects of such buildings show no respect for the siting of their work and have little concern for making it relate to it's surroundings. It'd be ideal to take the excess money that goes into buildings like that and funnel it into making a larger area more uniformally 'nice'. That statement's maybe just a bit naive in terms of how the money side of things work, but...
Many will probably disagree, but I think we've got a decent amount of star architecture locally for the time being.
Posted 4 years ago # -
cab124
Downtown Columbus
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Drew wrote Iconic architecture is the icing, not the cake. It's expensive to build and maintain, and can be disruptive to the coherence of the city. Often the architects of such buildings show no respect for the siting of their work and have little concern for making it relate to it's surroundings. It'd be ideal to take the excess money that goes into buildings like that and funnel it into making a larger area more uniformally 'nice'. That statement's maybe just a bit naive in terms of how the money side of things work, but...
Very well put.
When I look at the designs of many modern buildings, I can't help but to get the impression that they are intended to serve as a piece of sculpture that looks cool from a distance. Inherently, there may be nothing wrong with that, but I think the problem is a matter of perspective - they are designed to be a piece of art when viewed from 100 yards away, but up close, from the perspective of a pedestrian, the artistic effect is lost and they feel very uninteresting.
Take the convention center for example, it looks cool from an aerial perspective, but is completely cold an uninteresting to the pedestrian standing on the sidewalk 10 feet away. From that perspective, it is nothing more than a series of empty brick walls. Whereas the southern face of the Atlas building is as beautiful, and interesting, to the person standing right next to it at street level as it is from more of a distance. Sometimes I stand next to the Atlas building looking up in awe and wondering why we have completely abandoned this style of building in favor of the convention center or the new county court house. What are we thinking???
I once heard Kustler suggest that this problem may have arisen when we started designing buildings to look good from inside a car on a freeway from a distance. We need to get back to designing building that speak to the pedestrian standing right next to them on the sidewalk, and to start designing the public realm using the body of knowledge that was developed over a thousand years instead of the principles we use today.
Posted 4 years ago # -
drew
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That's an interesting thought- that car culture changes the way we design buildings. I can see that.
I think another part of it is a knee-jerk creative reflex towards originality (vs coherence). So many architects are looking to make or burnish their reputation with larger projects, and they're damned good at selling it to the folks with the money... "your name on the building, my name behind the design- we'll be heros!" The simple fact that a building does stand out from it's surroundings almost guarantees the attention that many architects (and patrons) crave. Also, don't underestimate the fear of looking like a philistine- that's a card that creative types are great at playing in subtle but unmistakable ways. From what I've heard of Peter Eisenmann (convention center architect), he wasn't even subtle about it... his attitude was, "is this city ready for me?"
Re the convention center- that building really bothers me. It's pretty sterile and imposing from ground level, and it does disrupt the continuity of High street. That strip is just begging for street level retail, and now it's never going to get it.
Posted 4 years ago # -
cab124
Downtown Columbus
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Drew wrote Re the convention center- that building really bothers me. It's pretty sterile and imposing from ground level, and it does disrupt the continuity of High street. That strip is just begging for street level retail, and now it's never going to get it.
I'll bet that it is still possible to retrofit the facade of the convention center with retail spaces or small restaurants/coffee shops. Doing so would absorb some of the space directly inside the building, but some of that space is already dedicated to part-time food/coffee services which could then be moved to the new spaces allowing access from both inside the convention center as well as from the street.
Posted 4 years ago # -
MikeReed
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Brewmaster wrote Does anybody think Kunstler should be hired as a consultant when City Center is redesigned? If he could refrian from calling people morons and dropping f-bombs in the presence of the mayor, I think he'd be an asset to the project.
People are so busy sleepwalking through life... I think some over the top assertions and f*bombs are what they need.
I enjoyed the Kunstler talk.
Posted 4 years ago # -
cab124
Downtown Columbus
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MikeReed wrote
Brewmaster wrote Does anybody think Kunstler should be hired as a consultant when City Center is redesigned? If he could refrian from calling people morons and dropping f-bombs in the presence of the mayor, I think he'd be an asset to the project.
People are so busy sleepwalking through life... I think some over the top assertions and f*bombs are what they need.
good point.
Posted 4 years ago #
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